A New Way to Look at Offender Recidivism, ICON Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, January 2007

Traditionally, recidivism is studied from the point when an offender first has an opportunity to reoffend, which is usually when he or she is admitted to community-based corrections supervision. However, an offender beginning supervision has not had an opportunity to complete treatment interventions that would potentially lower their risk of reoffending.

Prison Return Rate Down-Again, Data Download, Department of Corrections

One of the key statistics that Iowa Corrections maintains to measure the success of our efforts is the three-year return-to-prison rate for offenders leaving prison and reentering the community. As the chart below shows, the rate for the three-year period from FY 2009 through FY 2012 is the lowest since this measure has been calculated.

Tracking Needs of Prison Releasees, Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, February 2013, Corrections, Department of

DOC Research Director Lettie Prell recently compiled the calendar year 2012 data for offender releases from prison to community supervision in Iowa. Analyzes such as these help the Iowa Corrections system in identifying where the most reentry resource need is; what offender programming is most in demand; and which culturally-sensitive supervision and culturally-specific programming is prescribed.

Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grand Fund Outcomes Report and FY2002 Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary, January 2002

This document contains two related, but separate reports. The Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund Outcomes Report is a summary of outcomes from services and activities funded through the Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund in FY2001. The Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary describes Iowa communities’ current prevention and sanction programs supported with funding from the Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) during FY2002. The material in Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund Outcomes Report is presented in response to a legislative mandate to report specific prevention outcomes for the community Grant Fund. It includes a brief description of a Youth Development Results Framework established by the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development. Outcomes are reported using this results framework, which was developed by a number of state agencies as a common tool for various state programs involving youth development related planning and funding processes. Included in this report is a description of outcomes from the prevention activities funded, all or in part, by the Community Grant Fund, as reported by local communities. The program summaries presented in the Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary provide an overview of local efforts to implement their 2002 Juvenile Justice Youth Development plans and include prevention and sanction programs funded through the combined resources of the State Community Grant Fund and the Federal Title V Prevention, Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act Formula Grant and Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant programs. These combined funds are referred to in this document as the Juvenile Justice Youth Development (JJYD) funds. To administer the JJYD funds, including funds from the Community Grant Fund, CJJP partners with local officials to facilitate a community planning process that determines the communities’ priorities for the use of the funds. The local planning is coordinated by the Iowa’s Decategorization Boards (Decats). These local officials and/or their staff have been leaders in providing oversight or staff support to a variety of local planning initiatives (e.g. child welfare, Comprehensive Strategy Pilot Projects, Empowerment, other) and bring child welfare and community planning experience to the table for the creation of comprehensive community longterm planning efforts. The allocation of these combined funds and the technical assistance received by the Decats from CJJP is believed to have helped enhance both child welfare and juvenile justice efforts locally and has provided for the recognition and establishment of connections for joint child welfare/juvenile justice planning. The allocation and local planning approach has allowed funding from CJJP to be “blended” or “braided” with other local, state, and federal dollars that flow to communities as a result of their local planning responsibilities. The program descriptions provided in this document reflect services and activities supported with JJYD funds. In many cases, however, additional funding sources have been used to fully fund the programs. Most of the information in this document’s two reports was submitted to CJJP by the communities through an on- line planning and reporting process established jointly by the DHS and CJJP.

Iowa Department of Corrections, Strategic Plan 2014-2018, January 2014

Iowa’s adult correctional system carries out its legal mandate of protecting the public and promoting offender rehabilitation through a continuum of institution and community evidence based services and interventions. This continuum is designed with recognition that for most offenders, reentry planning starts upon admission to the corrections system. The effective and efficient management of offenders in accordance with their risk and criminogenic needs (those needs that contribute to criminality) is accomplished through targeted programming, release preparation, and transition services. Success in these endeavors assists offenders to become productive members of the community and makes it less likely that they will re-offend, resulting in lowered recidivism rates. In 1990 the Department’s prison recidivism rate was 44.7% and today it is 30.3%. Our overall desired outcome is to reduce the prison recidivism rate to 25% during the next five years by focusing resources toward our highest risk offenders.

Iowa Department of Corrections, Strategic Plan 2014-2018,

Iowa’s adult correctional system carries out its legal mandate of protecting the public and promoting offender rehabilitation through a continuum of institution and community evidence based services and interventions. This continuum is designed with recognition that for most offenders, reentry planning starts upon admission to the corrections system. The effective and efficient management of offenders in accordance with their risk and criminogenic needs (those needs that contribute to criminality) is accomplished through targeted programming, release preparation, and transition services. Success in these endeavors assists offenders to become productive members of the community and makes it less likely that they will re-offend, resulting in lowered recidivism rates. In 1990 the Department’s prison recidivism rate was 44.7% and today it is 30.3%. Our overall desired outcome is to reduce the prison recidivism rate to 25% during the next five years by focusing resources toward our highest risk offenders.

Issue review : construction status and operating costs of new corrections beds.

This issue review provides information on the Department of Corrections construction and of proposed staffing for additional beds in the prison system and community-based corrections.

Iowa Department of Corrections, Strategic Plan 2015-2019, January 2015

Iowa’s adult correctional system carries out its legal mandate of protecting the public and promoting offender rehabilitation through a continuum of institution and community evidence based services and interventions. This continuum is designed with recognition that for most offenders, reentry planning starts upon admission to the corrections system. The effective and efficient management of offenders in accordance with their risk and carcinogenic needs (those needs that contribute to criminality) is accomplished through targeted programming, release preparation, and transition services. Success in these endeavors assists offenders to become productive members of the community and makes it less likely that they will re-offend, resulting in lowered recidivism rates. In 1990 the Department’s prison recidivism rate was 44.7% and today it is 30.3%. Our overall desired outcome is to reduce the prison recidivism rate to 25% during the next five years by focusing resources toward our highest risk offenders.

Off-road sampling reveals a different grassland bird community than roadside sampling: implications for survey design and estimates to guide conservation

Grassland bird species continue to decline steeply across North America. Road-based surveys such as the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) are often used to estimate trends and population sizes and to build species distribution models for grassland birds, although roadside survey counts may introduce bias in estimates because of differences in habitats along roadsides and in off-road surveys. We tested for differences in land cover composition and in the avian community on 21 roadside-based survey routes and in an equal number of adjacent off-road walking routes in the grasslands of southern Alberta, Canada. Off-road routes (n = 225 point counts) had more native grassland and short shrubs and less fallow land and road area than the roadside routes (n = 225 point counts). Consequently, 17 of the 39 bird species differed between the two route types in frequency of occurrence and relative abundance, measured using an indicator species analysis. Six species, including five obligate grassland species, were more prevalent at off-road sites; they included four species listed under the Canadian federal Species At Risk Act or listed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada: Sprague’s Pipit (Anthus spragueii), Baird’s Sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii), the Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus), and McCown’s Longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii). The six species were as much as four times more abundant on off-road sites. Species more prevalent along roadside routes included common species and those typical of farmland and other human-modified habitats, e.g., the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia), and the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Differences in avian community composition between roadside and off-road surveys suggest that the use of BBS data when generating population estimates or distribution models may overestimate certain common species and underestimate others of conservation concern. Our results highlight the need to develop appropriate corrections for bias in estimates derived from roadside sampling, and the need to design surveys that sample bird communities across a more representative cross-section of the landscape, both near and far from roads. 

RINEX_HO: second- and third-order ionospheric corrections for RINEX observation files

When GNSS receivers capable of collecting dual-frequency data are available, it is possible to eliminate the first-order ionospheric effect in the data processing through the ionosphere-free linear combination. However, the second- and third-order ionospheric effects still remain. The first-, second- and third-order ionospheric effects are directly proportional to the total electron content (TEC), although the second- and third-order effects are influenced, respectively, by the geomagnetic field and the maximum electron density. In recent years, the international scientific community has given more attention to these kinds of effects and some works have shown that for high precision GNSS positioning these effects have to be taken into consideration. We present a software tool called RINEX_HO that was developed to correct GPS observables for second- and third-order ionosphere effects. RINEX_HO requires as input a RINEX observation file, then computes the second- and third-order ionospheric effects, and applies the corrections to the original GPS observables, creating a corrected RINEX file. The mathematical models implemented to compute these effects are presented, as well as the transformations involving the earth's magnetic field. The use of TEC from global ionospheric maps and TEC calculated from raw pseudorange measurements or pseudoranges smoothed by phase is also investigated.

Relationships of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate in the elderly with functional, psychological, and mental status, and short-term mortality: A French community-based study

In human beings of both sexes, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) circulating in blood is mostly an adrenally secreted steroid whose serum concentration (in the micromolar range and 30–50% higher in men than in women) decreases with age, toward ≈20–10% of its value in young adults during the 8th and 9th decades. The mechanism of action of DHEA and DHEAS is poorly known and may include partial transformation into sex steroids, increase of bioavailable insulin-like growth factor I, and effects on neurotransmitter receptors. Whether there is a cause-to-effect relationship between the decreasing levels of DHEAS with age and physiological and pathological manifestations of aging is still undecided, but this is of obvious theoretical and practical interest in view of the easy restoration by DHEA administration. Here we report on 622 subjects over 65 years of age, studied for the 4 years since DHEAS baseline values had been obtained, in the frame of the PAQUID program, analyzing the functional, psychological, and mental status of a community-based population in the south-west of France. We confirm the continuing decrease of DHEAS serum concentration with age, more in men than in women, even if men retain higher levels. Significantly lower values of baseline DHEAS were recorded in women in cases of functional limitation (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living), confinement, dyspnea, depressive symptomatology, poor subjective perception of health and life satisfaction, and usage of various medications. In men, there was a trend for the same correlations, even though not statistically significant in most categories. No differences in DHEAS levels were found in cases of incident dementia in the following 4 years. In men (but not in women), lower DHEAS was significantly associated with increased short-term mortality at 2 and 4 years after baseline measurement. These results, statistically established by taking into account corrections for age, sex, and health indicators, suggest the need for further careful trials of the administration of replacement doses of DHEA in aging humans. Indeed, the first noted results of such “treatment” are consistent with correlations observed here between functional and psychological status and endogenous steroid serum concentrations.

A guide to sex offender registration and community notification in Illinois : sex offender registration program.

Cover title.

Implementing balanced and restorative justice : victim, offender, community : a guide for law enforcement officers /

This publication is one in a series of guides designed to assist in the statewide promotion of balanced and restorative justice. BARJ is a philosophy of justice that can guide the work of individuals who deal with juvenile offenders, their victims, and the communities in which they live.

Implementing balanced and restorative justice : victim, offender, community : a guide for juvenile detention /

This publication is one in a series of guides designed to assist in the statewide promotion of balanced and restorative justice. BARJ is a philosophy of justice that can guide the work of individuals who deal with juvenile offenders, their victims, and the communities in which they live.

Substance abuse and the criminal justice system : a comprehensive state plan for treatment and community reintegration /

The plan was developed by a committee of leaders from the alcohol and substance abuse, and criminal justice fields: the Illinois Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (DASA), Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC), Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), John Howard Association (JHA) and Treatment Alternatives for Special Clients (TASC).